He needed help
by Hinata Nara
Summary: “I can’t believe an idiot like you made Hokage!” Shikamaru had said by way of greeting. Naruto just smiled and shot back, “I can’t believe you haven’t married that woman yet!”


Shikamaru buried his head in his hands. His thoughts were so troublesome. Why had Naruto's words bothered him so much?

He'd been walking with Temari, on the way to meeting Ino and Chouji for barbeque pork, when they ran in to Naruto and Hinata. Shikamaru had heard from his father, though it hadn't been made official yet, that Naruto was now Konoha's other hokage.  
"I can't believe an idiot like you made Hokage!" Shikamaru had said by way of greeting.  
Naruto just smiled and shot back, "I can't believe you haven't married that woman yet!"

Shikamaru couldn't remember a more awkward situation; it was more stressful than the time he thought he was going to die in the forest, more troublesome than the time he was nearly killed by Tayuya. Surprisingly though, Temari hadn't said anything. Shikamaru had done his level best to pretend as though nothing had happened, though he'd felt his face burn as they walked down the street, and he'd had to excuse himself for a lengthy break in the gentleman's room to pull himself together.

It had all happened two days ago, and Shikamaru had holed himself up in his room since then, his back hunched, his hands in the thinking position. Shikamaru winced and finally sat up. He didn't know how many hours he'd been like that, but he finally had a plan. He wasn't sure of victory, but there was one thing he knew for sure.

He needed help.

Ino and Chouji were training in the forest when he found them.  
"Oy, lazy, have you finally come to do some work?" Ino demanded.  
"Actually, I came to ask a favour."  
Shikamaru could feel his face burning again as he explained what he wanted Ino and Chouji to do.  
"So it's next Saturday then?" Chouji confirmed.

Shikamaru worked hard on his project all week, though as the days went by it became harder and harder to come up with excuses to fob off Temari. By Friday she didn't even wait for him to make an excuse; she just knocked him over with her fan and ran off.  
Shikamaru would never understand women.

Saturday morning came and Shikamaru found that even for a lazy person like him it was much harder to get out of bed than usual. He wandered down to the breakfast table finding it harder to make each step, until his father was forced to ask if he was unwell.  
"Dad," Shikamaru said, "how did you feel when you asked mum to marry you?"  
"Like I was facing imminent death," Shikaku replied with a smile.  
Shikamaru groaned and muttered, "How troublesome."  
"But you know," Shikaku added with a strange look, "I couldn't have gone on without asking. I had to know."

"Breakfast!" Yoshino announced as she carried two bowls of ramen in to the dining room.  
Mrs Nara stopped short. She could have sworn her son was at the table a minute ago.

Temari was packing her things to leave for the sand country when Ino and Chouji found her. At first she politely declined their invitation to breakfast, but they were so unusually insistent that she finally just let them drag her along – she didn't want to cause trouble for inter-village relations by forcing her way, because she knew she always went too far.

And it wasn't like that lazy bum would be there anyway.

Temari was mildly surprised when they didn't go to the usual place. Instead they walked right past, with Ino and Chouji steering her towards what appeared to be a broken down hall. Before she could ask what they were doing, they'd wrenched open the front door and Temari was confronted with too many faces to take in at once, as all of them yelled out, "Happy Birthday!"

Hands reached out of the thronging mass to pull her in to a hug, and she realised with a violent shock that it was Gaara and Kankuro.  
"Hoi," she demanded, releasing herself, "what's the big idea?"  
But she couldn't help but smile as she said that.

The crowd parted and Temari looked around the hall to find that it was decorated in tonnes of beautiful fans and her favourite flowers – her favourite flowers that could only be found in the desert.  
"I can't believe you did this!" she blurted out to Gaara and Kankuro, strangely aware of how unusual it was that she was expressing this kind of sentiment.  
"We didn't," replied Kankuro.  
"He did," said Gaara and he pointed behind Temari's head.

Temari whipped around and found herself feeling decidedly unconfident – a strange feeling that only one person could arouse in her.  
"Well what do you want then?" Temari found herself talking and acting before she could think. She folded her arms across her chest and threw her head back, trying desperately to look unaffected. 

Shikamaru had a strange look on his face. He swallowed and fidgeted as though he were nervous. Temari found herself even more unsettled; Shikamaru normally never cared enough about anything to be nervous about it.

"Temari," Shikamaru began. "I came to tell you something."  
Temari found herself strangely at a loss for words. Normally she always felt so bold that she could talk her way through any situation.  
"I always thought I knew what kind of life I wanted," Shikamaru continued. "I just wanted to do this ninja thing normally and get paid normally. I wanted to marry a plain woman and have two children. The first one would be a girl, and the next would be a boy. I would retire after my daughter got married and my son got a job. Then I would play shogi and go all day and die before my wife. That's the kind of life I thought I wanted."  
Temari stared, wondering where Shikamaru was going with this.  
"But I've changed."  
Temari finally found her voice.  
"How? How have you changed?"  
Shikamaru knelt down on one knee.  
"I don't want someone plain."  
Temari felt her eyes grow wide.  
"Hoi, troublesome woman, will you marry me?"

The hall was dead silent. Temari's body moved before her mind could register it. She flung her arms around Shikmaru's neck and was horrified to feel tears well up in her eyes. Shikamaru hugged her back but she pulled away.  
"Yeah I'll marry you."  
Shikamaru smiled. "Who's the crybaby now?"  
Temari found herself laughing as Shikamaru helped her put on the engagement ring.

In the corner of the room, Yoshino reached out and held Shikaku's hand.


End file.
